World Class Artistic Pool Masters Cup, Shenyang, China

The China tournament was quite the spectacle. I got picked up at the airport and taken to the hotel where they were getting the arena ready. All the other guys were milling around the lobby getting checked in as well. The first night had a big reception with dignitaries and press. A rep from the US Embassy was even there. Nice spread, but they didn't reload the food, so I only got one round. We were all anxious for the practice tables, but they were getting set up that evening. We finally got on one and rotated through for a while. The second one opened up a couple hours later. The opening ceremony was the next morning, again filled with dignitaries. My first round was on the TV table with searing lights, but our group shot well and finished in decent time. We had a bit of a break before our second round that afternoon. That was also on the TV table and I managed to keep myself in it. The third round that evening killed me. My group was on the other tournament table which was super slick, making some of the shots pretty difficult, especially after we had broken in the practice tables already. That's pretty much where I crashed out of contention, but it left me in 8th place that evening. The Sat morning round, we were re-grouped based on our rankings. The 9-12 guys went first, so I knew what I had to do to beat them. There wasn't a ton of motivation after that since 5-8 took home the same prize money and it would've taken catastrophe's from other players to make it to 4th. So I managed to squeeze into 8th while securing the follow discipline medal and putting myself in position for the masse medal as well. Gabi had a perfect masse discipline going into the final round, so I didn't hold out much hope. He shot in the next round and teased me by missing the shot twice before nailing the 3rd attempt.

Masse's in Walnut Creek

Had a fun session with Juan who contacted me last week and wanted to get together. Man, my 8 ball and 9 ball game have gone to crap. We went out to Masse's in Walnut Creek. We played a few games and I showed him some shots. I had him hit a few too and he seems really excited to learn more. Maybe I can get him up to speed to play in one of the tournaments later. Masse's was ok. It's a sports bar but was pretty quiet for a Monday night. The tables are mostly 9-ft Olhausens with skinny rails. The cloth was quality except for all of the stains from spilled drinks, food, and who knows what else. And I think there was only one bridge in the whole place, so maybe we were lucky not many other people were playing. Anyway, should be a fun time to show Juan some more stuff.

World Rankings

The WPA world rankings have been updated to include the recently concluded 2012 WPA World Artistic Pool Championship. The first public release of these rankings is posted at the URL below:

http://www.trickshottim.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=99

The official WPA site hasn't even been updated, so we're ahead of the curve here, even if the event happened more than two weeks ago. Oh, yes, the high tech world of trick shots.

2012 WPA World Artistic Pool Championships

The 2012 WPA World Artistic Pool Championships were held this past weekend at the annual Super Billiards Expo. It brought together some of the best trick shot pros in the world along with some new faces, including 14 year old Iulian Cernatischi and 15 year old Ignacio Block from Argentina. It was also one of the largest fields we've had in recent years with 36 players.

I started off pretty hot with a total score of 70 after trick/fancy and special arts, winning the special arts medal along the way. That was good enough for 1st place, but things quickly went downhill from there. I wound up in 8th place after the preliminary round and had to face 9th place Jamie Moody in the playoffs. It went back and forth, but I pulled out the victory in the end which earned me a shot at Andy Segal in the next round. I kept it close but threw away a few points here and there and ended up losing by nine. My final position was 7th, which is solid but not spectacular. Andy went on to win the tournament for the 2nd year in a row, beating Nick Nikolaidis in the final.

Star Wars

I find it amusing that someone with an Iranian IP address thought it was worth their while to visit my pool trick shots page and give the first page of shots a 1-star rating!

2012 World Championship Sign Ups Announced

The sign up process for the 2012 WPA Artistic Pool World Championships has begun. I can't find the documents anywhere on the internet, but they were emailed to a list of players and promoters. If you're interested in signing up for this tournament, let me know. It will be held at the Super Billiards Expo, March 8-11, 2012, in Oaks, PA.

Pool Synergy: Practice - What Works For Me

This month's Pool Synergy is hosted by John Biddle. The topic is about practice - what works for me.

Practicing trick shots isn't always about setting up the same shot and hitting it over and over again until it goes in (and making sure the camera is rolling when it does!). In fact, it involves certain principles that can carry over to your typical pool games. I'm going to write about two things that have helped me practice more effectively: focus and relaxation.

When I was practicing for the 2010 Ultimate Trick Shot Championship, I knew I only had a couple hours each day to practice. Instead of trying to practice everything I wanted to each day, I broke it down and focused on certain skills each day. For trick shots, this broke down into something like one-handed jump shots, one-handed multi-cue jump shots, masse shots, stroke shots, fouette shots, backward jumps, contortion jumps, speed shots, and juggling shots. I would cycle through these as my practiced progressed and build up a base skill level for each one. For typical pool skills, this could include straight in shots, shooting off the rail, stop shots from different distances, and so on. It was faster learning by dedicating larger amounts of time to certain things rather than doing everything for a little amount of time.

Another thing that has worked well for me is knowing when to take a break. It's certainly frustrating when you're trying to get better but you're obviously not. While there's much to be said for perseverance, you also need to know when you reach the point of diminishing returns. I've given myself headaches, literally, trying certain shots or skills for hours on end. Now, when I feel myself reaching that point, I turn to something else. Usually I'll turn to straight pool or speed pool to break the monotony. It takes the mind off whatever was going wrong and speed pool, at least, gets the heart pumping again. But sitting down for a few minutes or taking a quick stroll outside can accomplish the same effect.

Hope these tips can help you as much as they helped me. Keep a narrow focus while you're at the table, and know when to let off when things get too intense. Let me know if they work or don't work for you (and perhaps why). Happy shooting!